Indialucia - rumba - Raag 'n' Ole

Do they hear what we hear?

Do they know what we know? To know more to know that there is more we don't know.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/23/science/how-possibilities-of-life-elsewhere-might-alter-held-notions-of-faith.html

Truthful whispers that never fade

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/where-does-moral-courage-come-from/

Compassion and choices for only five out of fifty in the land of the free and the home of the brave?

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/28/us/bucket-list-woman/index.html

Simple, effective and deeply humorous antidote for pomposity.

Great lines by K V Ramachandran Nair:


"Change cannot be given to you every time. You must bring the change."


Who's K V Ramachandran Nair?


He is a bus conductor. Now read it again!!

Interesting read this morning, apparently the original designers of the Roman calendar took after the decimal system and had ten months in a year. The last four were named by their numerical positions.

September (Latin-Spanish root: Siete; Sanskrit-Hindi cognate: Saat)
October(Ocho; Aath)
November(Nueve; Nav)
December(Diez; Das)

Around 700 BC they realized the accounting error. A new Calendar 2.0 version was released with two additional winter months Jan and Feb, but by now numerical misnomers at the end remained.

So it has been over 2000 years we live with this idiosyncrasy (and over 20 years of Windows start, stop, start again hoola hoops 3.1, 95, 98, 2000, 7, 8, 10...)!

Mar(vellou)s !

"I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time." Forrest Gump.

The destination and the destiny for us are the experiences of our journeys and the striving for the realization of a higher meaning out of all of that.

Turtle and rabbit revisited and refined

Houston maybe we have a problem some 35 generations from now

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Asteroid-of-1km-diametre-may-hit-earth-to-abolish-human-life/articleshow/40311533.cms

The Hundred-Foot Journey

Thumbs up for Hollywood and Bollywood meeting in a scenic French village wherein the cuisines of two cultures clash and then mingle. Very good performances by Helen Mirren, Manish Dayal, Om Puri and Charlotte Le Bon.

Rickshaw from Mumbai to London!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/14/automobiles/an-epic-road-trip-in-an-electric-tuk-tuk.html?_r=0

Ode to new Brazil rising

Carlos Santana Guitar Sonata on Soccer!

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2014/m=7/news=santana-messi-looks-like-a-plumber-2403961.html

Finally, who do you think will win the Final?
I think Germany are going to win. I'd like to see Argentina win because I live in America, but it's not going to happen. It's not impossible, but it's not probable. It's not impossible because I love Messi, however my German brothers – because we're all family – have an extra element of clarity and concentration. For example, musicians, when they play really fast, you have to think slower, but when you play slower, you have to think really fast. They understand this. Also, the way they breathe is not controlled by terror, it's not fear, it's not paralysing or stiff. Like when a woman has a baby, they change their breath and relax. At an event like the World Cup, you have to learn to breathe correctly or else you get tired really quickly. I think my German brothers understand this. When I saw what they did to Brazil, [I saw that] they were a team and they are not depending on one superstar to win. They are a collective. It's very difficult to beat a team with superstars – the team will always win. That's my perception.

Dreamy meetings

https://medium.com/comedy-corner/10-tricks-to-appear-smart-during-meetings-27b489a39d1a

Employment and health insurance

Employment has as much or as little to do with health insurance as it has to what food we eat or what car we drive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/03/upshot/the-illogic-of-employer-sponsored-health-insurance.html?_r=0

Jogo Bonito : Brazil versus Colombia

Vintage inter continental battle : Argentina versus Belgium

Groceries and laundry during the regular 90 min play time of the other two games !

Seems like USA did not recover from the paralyzingly lightening strike about 30 seconds from close of game against Portugal, They got beaten fair and square by Belgium. Tim Howard's saves were out of the world but that pointed to sleeping midfield and non-functional offense. The saving grace was that USA did wake up in the last 10 to 15 min even found energy to create some golden chances and scored also. May the best of all the group topper teams win in the quarter finals and then beyond.

Let's go USA ! Time to score now in the first fifty seconds unlike many others recently where it has been in the last as many almost.

As unattainable as sun-bathing in Serbia

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/sports/worldcup/world-cup-2014-brazils-goalkeepers-finally-get-some-respect.html?smid=nytnow-share&smprod=nytnow&_r=0

A four year economic plan full of cheer!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/upshot/why-you-should-root-for-nigeria-or-brazil-mexico-or-ghana.html

Heartbreak USA

So close to a win against Portugal. They were perhaps dazed from the spectacular recovery going one down into the last half hour to be scoring two in twenty minutes. They could have defended more in the last few minutes and lost the concentration a little at the very end, all very easy to say in hindsight. What a double irony it would have been for the groups of death and double-death, Costa Rica already in and at the top, England out leaving Italy and Uruguay to battle it out. USA would have been in first and Portugal out, but even right now looks impossible for Portugal to beat USA to second place with a win in the last game.

Going into the last minute or two my daughter said USA has won haven't they and while I wanted to say the same I uttered the more elderly "anything could happen" which came back haunting.

Cancun, Yucatan Peninsular Mexican Carribean, Mexico

A melange of sights, sounds and culture. Mexican carribean beach resort, Mexican hospitality, swim with the dolphins, Xcaret (Esh-ca-ret) park with natural sights, cultural sightseeing capped with a two hour spectacular theater production Mexico Espectacular (Me-hi-co E-specta-cu-lar) depicting the journey through the pre-Hispanic cultures (Mayan, Aztec etc) to the post-Spanish mixed-race Hispanic medley of dance, song and color.

Markets are instrumental, not intrinsic, for human flourishing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/opinion/capitalism-and-the-dalai-lama.html

Snow on Cherry Blossoms

Cherry Blossoms, already delayed several weeks by long cold winter, are confused by the overnight gentle sprinkling and coating of white powder along with freezing temperatures. Hopefully it will not start snowing again come October.

Rolling Stone interview with Bill Gates

Do you believe in God? 

I agree with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths. Before we really began to understand disease and the weather and things like that, we sought false explanations for them. Now science has filled in some of the realm – not all – that religion used to fill. But the mystery and the beauty of the world is overwhelmingly amazing, and there's no scientific explanation of how it came about. To say that it was generated by random numbers, that does seem, you know, sort of an uncharitable view [laughs]. I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don't know.

http://m.rollingstone.com/culture/news/bill-gates-the-rolling-stone-interview-20140313

Puppet strings in the theater of statistics

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/25/opinion/sunday/how-long-have-i-got-left.html?ref=opinion

Oxfam: 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world

Winnie Byanyima, the Oxfam executive director who will attend the Davos meetings, said: "It is staggering that in the 21st Century, half of the world's population – that's three and a half billion people – own no more than a tiny elite whose numbers could all fit comfortably on a double-decker bus."

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/20/oxfam-85-richest-people-half-of-the-world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Distribution_of_Wealth,_2007.jpg

Driving the middle road

Capitalist systems are winning the world over including communist China and Russia, we recognize the invisible hand driving it forward, we don't want people to be addicted to social welfare and mooch off, we know it is not always going to be fair, there will be luck and perseverance and hard work and failures and sparks of innovation, and we know greed is good metaphorically speaking in that it greases the wheels of capitalism, we know government cannot be the means and the end to betterment.

However, unbridled, naked, reckless greed can as well drive us back to the jungle life whence we evolved from.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/opinion/sunday/for-the-love-of-money.html?hp&rref=opinion

Polar Vortex

Anyone who didn't live within the polar vortex got to believe it was cold by the fact that it was so cold in Lexington KY that a prisoner who escaped state prison turned himself in to be able to warm up.